Nicholas Brooks Sentenced to 25 Years to Life for Drowning Girlfriend Sylvie Cachay

Nicholas Brooks, son of the Oscar-winning composer Joseph Brooks, was sentenced Monday to 25-years-to-life in state prison for drowning his swimsuit-designer girlfriend Sylvie Cachay in December 2010, Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance said.

Judge Bonnie Wittner said she could have sentenced Mr. Brooks to 15 years-to-life but instead chose the higher sentence, calling the crime a “singularly horrific and tragic event.”

Mr. Brooks was convicted in July following a five-week trial during which prosecutors argued that on the morning of Dec. 9, 2010 he strangled and drowned Ms. Cacahy in a bathtub at the exclusive Soho House in Manhattan’s Meatpacking District. The couple had checked into the private-members club, where Ms. Cachay was a member, shortly after midnight because there had been a fire inside her apartment accidentally sparked by candles.

At about 2:10 a.m., a guest staying in the room below theirs called Soho House staff complaining about water leaking through his ceiling. Five minutes after that call, surveillance cameras recorded Mr. Brooks leaving the room, according to testimony. A short time later, an employee checking on the leak discovered Ms. Cachay’s body in the tub. She was dressed in a turtleneck sweater, underwear and still had her Rolex watch – a cherished gift from her parents for her 25th birthday – still on her wrist, according to testimony.

During the trial, prosecutors presented witnesses testimony and a letter written by the 33-year-old Ms. Cachay, the daughter of a doctor, to show that she planned to break up with Mr. Brooks, a college dropout who was nine years her junior.

“Get a job,” was one demand Ms. Cachay included in a four-page to-do list to Mr. Brooks, written shortly before her death. She also asked him to cut down on his drinking, stop smoking marijuana, clean up after himself and treat her better.

In an email written on the morning of her death, Mr. Cachay accused Mr. Brooks of cheating on her. She wrote that she had financially supported him for the past six months and threatened to call her credit card company and tell them that didn’t have permission to use it during that time. “Have fun in jail. Sylvie,” she wrote.

Mr. Brooks’ attorney, Jeffrey Hoffman, countered that though the couple had a tempestuous relationship, they really loved each other and that Ms. Cachay could have accidentally drowned after falling into the bathtub and hitting her head. Defense experts and witnesses testified that Ms. Cachay may have become woozy after taking prescription medicine that day.

Ms. Cachay grew up in Arlington, Va. Her father is a Peruvian-born physician. After college, she worked as a clothing designer for Marc Jacobs, Tommy Hilfiger and Victoria’s Secret before opening her own swimsuit line, Syla, in 2006.

Mr. Brooks’ father, Joseph Brooks, wrote and directed the 1977 movie “You Light Up My Life – winning and Academy Award for composing the film’s title track. The father committed suicide in 2011 while awaiting trial on charges he raped 13 aspiring actresses he allegedly lured to his Manhattan apartment after placing advertisements in online casting websites.